In fact when I typed that punitive damages don't exist I initially entered a caveat that there are some rare exceptions but then thought that would only confuse the issue so erased it. The basic principle still holds true though that if the plaintiff wins then the defendant can't be fined for wrongdoing. There may be exceptions but the normal principle is to restore the status quo ante & recompense the plaintiff for any loss not punish the defendant. Any punishment of wrongdoing by means of a fine is for criminal cases not civil cases.

It is a basic tenet of English civil law & there is no such thing as punitive damages . This is why those mad judgements in the US where college kids or grannies are sued by record or movie companies claiming millions of dollars for illegal downloading would not hold water here in the UK.

I get your point but I don't have any other creditors & TBH all I want to do is pay off the loan & end my dealings with the Co-op. I'll send a covering letter pointing out that while they they don't admit that they mis-sold me PPI offering me a full refund plus interest amounts to a clear admission of guilt & therefore they should be adhering to the FOS guidelines when it comes to restitution. I suppose that it won't do any harm to copy the FOS on the letter too.

Re-reading one of the other pieces of paper in the envelope I see that I have 13 repayments left & the bank say "On the basis that new loans can only be set up using multiples of 6 months you could either..." choose 12 monthly repayments or 18 monthly repayments. So a proper restructuring of the loan would be to adjust the 13 remaining monthly repayments downward to reflect the fact that there is no longer a PPI element included. The example on the FOS website quotes someone who has a 60 month loan & reclaims after 20 months then having the remaining 40 repayments reduced. So why the Co-op decide that a new loan must be in multiples of 6 months is presumably to suit their own accounting purposes rather than any legal requirement. Presumably the only way to get them to adhere to the letter of the law as per the FOS is to refuse the offer & complain to the FOS. As Option 2 (pay off the balance of the loan & give me £3+K in cash) is my preferred choice I don't think that I'll bother to argue the toss.

Perhaps I paraphrased too much but I suppose that it depends on your interpretation of what 'restructure' means as you would effectively need to have a new loan. Here is the full text of Option 3 (bold emphasis is theirs)

I have to sign a form & return a form to acknowledge that I accept the offer. I have to select from three options:- 1) I do not wish to cancel the PPI or receive a payment(!!!) 2) Pay off the loan & pay me £3100+ 3) Pay me £5400+ & arrange a new loan for the balance owed repayable with either 12 monthly repayments of £199.69 or 18 monthly repayments of £133.13 If it wasn't for the fact that I would really like to be totally debt-free for the first time in years the latter 18 month offer is actually a bit tempting as by my calculations it's a £2200+ loan at an APR of under 3.5%.

SUCCESS!!! I received a letter from the Co-operative Bank this morning & they have agreed to everything that I asked for. Full refund of PPI premium & the interest applied to the premium. Additional 8% interest on the above So my loan will be paid off 12 months early & I will receive a cash payment of over £3000. There was no apology just a statement that "We are not satisfied that we have provided you with the high standard of service we would expect and therefore, as a gesture of goodwill, I am prepared to offer you...". As soon as I get the money I shall be closing the account which I probably would not have done if they had the decency to apologise. I have been really disappointed thus far with my treatment by a bank that makes such a song & dance about its ethical credentials. At least I know where I stand with the capitalist greed of Barclays.

The mis-selling was so widespread that the FSA have insisted that the banks etc contact everyone who was ever sold PPI & tell them that they may have been mis-sold. It is/was such a fundamentally bad product that it could be that the majority of policies were mis-sold. The now banned practice of selling a single premium insurance by wrapping up a loan along with the main loan is a case in point. Arguably anyone sold a single premium PPI has a case for compensation.

They are sending out between 4 million & 12 million letters so it would be a very good idea to get to the front of the queue by registering your complaint of mis-selling as soon as possible before all those millions of people start clogging up the system.

The banks have now been ordered to contact everyone who was ever sold PPI telling them that they may have been the victim of mis-selling. I have just had a standard letter acknowledging my complaint that I sent off a few weeks ago. Hopefully I will be a bit ahead in the queue over those who will be receiving letters shortly as the estimates of number of letters to be sent out vary between 4 million & 12 million.

Is there anything that I should make sure to mention in the covering letter? The main points for me are that I was forced to take PPI or not get the loan, that I didn't realise at the time that the insurance was a lump sum paid up front & then repaid with interest (I see this now I look at the signed loan agreement but it didn't hit me at the time). The other issue is that they refused me when I complained before & offered a miserly refund of £1700 when they had taken over £5000 from me for the PPI. I want to make clear that I didn't accept their offer because I still felt that I had been mis-sold & felt that if I did accept I would be acknowledging that their decision to refuse to reimburse me was correct. I should have appealed to the FOS then but as I said I just let it slide.

Thanks for the advice. I have prepared the attached spreadsheet ready to include with my FOS questionnaire & covering letter. The basic figures are that I have been paying out £61.91/month for the last 5 years 11 months which amounts to £4333.70 but adding the 8% simple interest of £1011.61 brings the grand total up to £5345.31. The outstanding loan is currently £3241.16 with 13 months left so that would cover paying off the loan & leave me a nice windfall of getting on for £3K. StatIntSheet v101-Final-anon.xls

I was mis-sold single premium PPI on a £12500 personal loan that I took out with the Co-operative Bank in April 2006. The loan was all arranged by phone & when I objected to the PPI (I said that I had heard that the PPI offered by banks wasn't good value & that I was better off going for an independent provider) I was told that if I didn't take their PPI then they would have to do further credit checks & that me getting the loan would be delayed. I was desperate for the money at the time so agreed. In November 2008 I formally complained to the Co-op about the mis-selling. I eventually received a rejection in February 2009 basically saying that I had a 30-day cooling off period & could have cancelled the PPI policy in that time (I could not as that would have meant cancelling the loan) & that I had in any case benefited from the PPI if I had needed to make a claim. They made an offer to cancel the remainder of the PPI & refund me £1700. The PPI cost £4262.77 or with interest £5200. I did not accept the refund as I did not think it right. I was also informed that if I was not happy with the decision that I could appeal to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I realise that in retrospect this is what I should have done but my life was in somewhat of a mess at that time & I didn't pursue it. I know that the banks withdrew from the big court case last year & had thought that they were supposed to be reviewing every single PPI policy that was sold. I now gather from some Googling that they may in fact not have been forced to review all previously rejected claims. My question is that as the Co-op said that was their final decision & that I didn't appeal to the FOS three years ago does that now prevent me from resubmitting a mis-selling claim? Is there anyone else in the same situation or has heard of a previously rejected claim for mis-selling being successfully re-opened?